Black Friday Sales Psychology

byRobert Avilaon11/21/2012

The Black Friday Sales Madness is about to begin!

You’ve seen the crowds lined up outside of stores waiting to be the first ones to rush in and buy super discounted merchandise. It looks like total chaos! It looks like a total adrenaline rush! and It’s also fascinating to observe.

On the outside looking in, it doesn’t make any sense? Who would go out into the cold, fight the crowds, look for parking, wait in line, and stay up late to buy something on sale?

What is so interesting to me is trying to find out the motivation behind this annual event?

A few things that come to mind that would motivate someone to join in on this frenzy are the following:

1. The Reward – Huge savings on enticing products.
2. Urgency – If you’re not 1st your last. The early bird gets the worm!
3. Scarcity – Limited quantities – while supplies last!
4. Social Proof – Everyone else is going, there’s no way you can miss out!
5. Emotion – The anticipation of all the excitement running into the story and grabbing a great deal!
6. Competition – The feeling of competing against everyone else trying to the prize first.
7. Necessity – This is the best bang for the buck for those with a limited budget.

When you stop to think about it, it’s as though the deck is stacked against and that there is nothing you can do to resist the overwhelming temptation!

Even though you may be aware of all the above, you may still find it impossible to resist. The reason being is that its human nature to be compelled to all of those emotional triggers. We’ve all hear dthe phrase “we make decisions based on emotion and back it up with logic.” We justify our emotional purchase by rationalizing it with logic and tell ourselves a story for why we need something.

When you are putting together your sales presentation think about incorporating those principles!